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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25255264">Bad Beat</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/back2beesness/pseuds/back2beesness'>back2beesness</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Winning Hand [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>All For The Game - Nora Sakavic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Identity Reveal, against his better judgment, also yes the title is another obscure poker term, google it, i'm sad about it too, its what i did, neil finally gives the foxes (aaron) some explanations, sorry andrew isn't in this one, this got kinda out of hand, what can you do</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 06:01:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,465</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25255264</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/back2beesness/pseuds/back2beesness</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Neil explains to the Foxes exactly what happened at the banquet, gives some answers to Aaron, and steps into a new role.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Winning Hand [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1822588</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>123</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Bad Beat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Who'da thunk, I made an Inception reference in this without even realizing it. Pretty in character for me ngl. Sorry, this doesn't have Andrew in it, but the next part is all andreil, so hold your horses. Also, turns out, I love writing Aaron. Sarcastic bitchass is fun to write, what can I say. I actually don't hate Aaron, but Aaron hates Neil, so that's gonna come across in this, sorry.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Neil was woken the next morning by the sound of a fist banging on his door. Matt sat up like a groundhog poking its head out of the burrow, with the bedhead to match. Neil rolled out of bed so fast he almost fell. He was used to making some pretty quick exits from various motel room beds, and it was hard to kick the habit. If there was a loud noise waking him up while he was on the run, it meant someone was coming for him, and it was time to move.</p>
<p>	This instance turned out to be no different. Matt swung open the door to a fuming Aaron. If Neil hadn’t already figured out how to tell the difference between the twins fairly early on, he could’ve been convinced it was Andrew. There was a rage there that he hadn’t seen in Aaron’s eyes before. Disgust, sure, anger, plenty. But there was something deeper in his expression as he pushed past Matt and shoved something against Neil’s chest as he stood, blinking blearily at the early hour.</p>
<p>	“Care to explain to me what exactly this fucking thing means?” He snarled, practically spitting in anger.</p>
<p>	“That would require me to read it. And you to back up, you’re in my light,” Neil replied mildly. The only thing about Aaron that frightened him was the tight fist he had around Andrew’s throat. He was an even bigger idiot than Neil thought if he hadn’t realized it yet.</p>
<p>	“Where the fuck is Andrew.” It wasn’t a question.</p>
<p>	Neil sighed, still holding the envelope Aaron had given him. “I told you I’d explain this morning. I didn’t say at the asscrack of dawn whenever you felt like barging into my room. Go to the fucking court and wait with everyone else.”</p>
<p>	“I can’t, asshole. Those are yours,” he growled, pointing a finger at the lump in the envelope in Neil’s hand, “Apparently.”</p>
<p>	Neil looked down. Written on the outside of the envelope, which Aaron apparently wasn’t even trying to pretend he hadn’t ripped open, was Neil’s name, along with a carefully printed message that read “Not a scratch.” He hadn’t signed it, but Neil supposed he didn’t need to. As Neil turned out the envelope, something cool and metal hit his palm. In his hand were the keys to the Maserati. Still on it was their dorm room key, court keys, and the very key Neil had sitting on his key ring in his pocket, to the house in Columbia.</p>
<p>	He was frozen solid. Something settled in his chest, something that felt like suffocating or maybe like standing in front of a train and closing your eyes. He remembered the way Andrew had looked at him when he’d first given him the key to his house, like it meant nothing. Neil had told him that he knew what that meant. Andrew had spent most of his life fighting for the ability to lock his own doors. And there he was handing Neil the key.</p>
<p>	“So are you going to get a move on or should I tell Kevin to start walking?” Aaron said.</p>
<p>	“I...give me ten minutes and I’ll be right there.” Neil found himself barely able to get the words out, but apparently it was enough for Aaron, who turned on his heel and slammed the door behind him.</p>
<p>	Before Matt could ask for another of what was becoming a long list of overdue explanations, Neil darted into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him. He could hear Matt shuffling around the kitchen area, turning on the coffee machine and opening the fridge to see if they had anything edible left in there.</p>
<p>	Neil stood in the dark, unable to bring himself to turn on the lights, clutching Andrew’s keys in his hand. This was...unfathomable. He’d known that Andrew leaving would put a wrench in the way things worked between Andrew’s group and the upperclassmen, but this was something else entirely. Andrew had trusted him with Kevin, which was already more than Neil had been expecting, but there was no way he had anticipated this. He’d assumed that maybe, just maybe, Andrew would give his car keys to Nicky so they could get around, but it wasn’t exactly new for Andrew to leave them stuck in a tricky situation, so he’d braced for Andrew taking them with him, cutting the group’s transportation access off entirely. Neil had figured he’d be hitching a ride with Matt or maybe finally giving into Allison’s requests to get him a better phone so he could call an Uber, but then again he had fairly negative experiences with strangers in cars, so on the other hand maybe not. </p>
<p>He tried to remember if he’d ever told Andrew that he could drive, or if that had been another leap of faith. But it wasn’t just the car keys. These were Andrew’s entire world: his home, his dorm, his job, as much as exy was a job at this point, and arguably the one item in the world that he actually cared about owning. Neil had been overwhelmed by his own keys, by the idea that he was a person with real places to be and belong in, and when Andrew had given him the key to his house, he’d been floored. It was more than just a literal show of trust, it was something permanent. Something tying him down, holding him here. It wasn’t like the key to his dorm, a place he knew was temporary, even if he had survived the year. It was a place Andrew had carved out with blood and sweat and tears as someplace for him and his own and no one else. He’d marked Neil as one of his own, with a place that was permanent in every sense of the word. But these keys were different. They were a part of Andrew. They represented everything he had built for himself, and he was giving them to Neil. It said, I trust you. More than that, it said, I’m coming back to you. He knew that Andrew had probably felt betrayed by his meddling, no matter how much it had helped Kevin, and even Andrew himself, so what exactly was Andrew thinking? That he trusted Neil to do what he wanted him to, even with no guarantee? It went against everything he’d learned about him. It made no sense. He added it to the ever-growing list of things he’d have to talk to Andrew about when they both got back in the New Year.</p>
<p>	He placed the keys down lightly on his bed, grabbing some sweatpants and a shirt that probably needed washing from his pile of clothes and threw them on, also grabbing Matt’s sweatshirt from where he’d tossed it at the end of his bed the night before. Neil shoved his feet into new sneakers Nicky had told him he had to buy last time he’d been dragged to the mall, and he had to admit it was nice to have a pair without any holes in them, especially as it got colder. He ran a hand distractedly through his hair before snatching up Andrew’s keys and pushing open the door.</p>
<p>	Matt smiled at him from the kitchen, offering a to-go cup of black coffee.</p>
<p>	“Completely plain but super caffeinated. I figured you’re gonna need it,” he said, with a sympathetic wince.</p>
<p>	“Yeah, thanks.” Neil shifted on his feet a bit awkwardly, trying not to avoid his eyes. “I’ll see you there, I guess. Can’t keep Aaron waiting or he’ll...well, probably not anything, but I don’t really want to listen to him complain during the drive over.”</p>
<p>	“Yeah, sure. I mean, Andrew’s nuts, but at least he doesn’t whine like Aaron does. Ornery shitheads, both of them.”</p>
<p>Neil hummed slightly, not wanting to get into that particular argument right before he had to drop this many bombs on his friends.</p>
<p>“See you there.”</p>
<p>Neil stepped out into the hallway slowly, walking down the stairs to the parking lot to see Aaron, Kevin, and a yawning Nicky leaning against the Maserati. It seemed Kevin was calling shotgun, not that Neil had expected anything else. Neil gave them all a small nod, getting in the driver’s side before Nicky could start whatever it was he had been about to say. The rest dragged themselves into their seats as Neil made a bit of a show of moving the seat back so he could drive. He didn’t really need to, but he’d take all the small victories he could today.</p>
<p>It had been a while since he’d driven, and Aaron’s eyerolls from the backseat told him that the initial minute or so he took adjusting to the feel of the Maserati didn’t go unnoticed, but he quickly adapted, and found himself sinking into the familiar feeling of driving. He’d spent hours on various highways and backroads of various countries, and there was little the suburbs could throw at him that he hadn’t dealt with countless times before.<br/>By the time they pulled up at the court, Neil had almost forgotten what he had to do today. But the sight of the player’s entrance brought it all tumbling back, and he closed his eyes for a long second.</p>
<p>Kevin opened his mouth to say something, but Neil just snapped, “Out.”</p>
<p>Aaron mumbled something on his way out about replacing Andrew with a worse version, but they all followed behind him. Neil took another second to breathe before turning off the car to steady himself, before heading out to open up the back door.</p>
<p>It seemed Wymack had beaten them to it, since all the lights were on inside the lounge. Neil collapsed on his usual spot on the couch, and the rest of the monsters fell in line around him. It was odd, this glimpse of what it was like to be Andrew. He’d noticed Kevin had been much less talkative than usual, rather than giving him a rundown of what his Winter Break training schedule should be, or starting on the barrage of questions Neil knew he had. He’d also seemed to be shadowing Neil, falling into step slightly beside him, giving him some deference that Neil wasn’t used to. If he’d had more time, he could’ve done a fairly deep psychological dive into that particular habit, but before he could decide how much he really cared, the upperclassmen came in, also looking less boisterous than usual. Renee gave him a soft smile that he quickly filed away in case this ended up how he’d been worrying it might, with his teammates deciding he wasn’t worth the trouble, or writing him off as just another monster. He wondered if that was why Andrew and Renee were friends: she didn’t seem the type to label anyone as beyond help.</p>
<p>Wymack came out of his office, his casual lean against the hallway wall at odds with his crossed arms and tense posture. Neil looked up at him, waiting for some cue, but Wymack just waved his hand at him, as if to say, “the floor is yours.”</p>
<p>	Neil took one last, good look around the room at his teammates, his family, as they all stared back at him. “I guess I have some explaining to do.”</p>
<p>	Aaron snorted. “I don’t really give a fuck about what was going on with that. Where’s Andrew?”</p>
<p>	Neil turned to address him specifically, though he knew this was information for the whole team, he felt he owed Aaron at least that much. “Rehab. I made a call to some contacts of mine. Turns out they have some dirt on the judge who ruled in favor of Andrew’s medicated parole. Got him to overturn it. Betsy’s probably been up all night straightening things out, but I made sure she got to choose the facility before she called Andrew. It’s being kept pretty quiet, so not even Riko should be able to do anything about it.”</p>
<p>	Neil could practically see Aaron’s fury radiating off of him. “Why exactly didn’t you do this earlier?”</p>
<p>	“I didn’t have anything worth enough for help from this particular contact. Turns out blood isn’t exactly thicker than water. Now I’m scoring him a pretty important deal, so he agreed to grant my request. Andrew should be back by the New Year. So should I.”</p>
<p>	“Where are you going?” Matt looked startled.</p>
<p>	“To see some relatives and make some more deals. I promise I’ll explain everything, it’s just kind of a long story.” Neil ran a nervous hand through his hair.</p>
<p>	Dan’s eyes darted around the room, like she was checking in before speaking on behalf of the rest of the team. “Okay, how about we start with whatever it was that happened yesterday?”</p>
<p>	Neil sighed. “How much do you know about the yakuza?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>__________</p>
<p> </p>
<p>	Unsurprisingly Nicky was the first to recover.</p>
<p>	“I won’t lie. Didn’t see that one coming. Who had money on secretly running from the mob? Anyone? I guess I should’ve known that mole for the CIA investigating Andrew for murder was too far off.”</p>
<p>Matt leaned back, threading his fingers together. “Hey, you were closer than me. International supermodel trying to outrun internet fame in Italy seems to have been a bust too. It was pretty fair though. Neil, buddy, you’re an eleven.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, clearly trying to lighten the mood, but barely dodged the elbow Dan threw his way.</p>
<p>	“I stand by alien whose ship crashed into a high school and tried to copy the native intelligent species to avoid capture by the government. That’s still a possibility. Maybe the first movie he watched was Scarface and that’s where all this shit came from,” Allison grumbled, waving a vague hand in Neil’s direction. She looked back up to see the room staring at her. “What, too soon? Probably too soon.” She winced.</p>
<p>	Kevin was looking decidedly less green than he had yesterday, and Neil considered that win. Still, he waved a hesitant hand in front of Kevin’s face. “Earth to Kevin?” He was practically holding his breath.</p>
<p>	Kevin sighed, rubbing at his forehead. “Honestly? It doesn’t look like we’re any worse off then we were before. Just more of an ultimatum. Rather than just being afraid they’ll kill us any minute, we know when they might. That’s something at least. And we can do something to prevent it, which is nice for a change. But I swear to God if this doesn’t motivate you assholes to actually try in practice then I don’t know what will.”</p>
<p>	There was a unanimous groan from the room, apart from Neil, who was looking right at Kevin. He gave a small nod and a somewhat bittersweet half-smile, before turning back to the group at large.</p>
<p>	Aaron had been stewing silently since that morning, and Neil honestly didn’t even want to look at him, but he shot a glance to his seat in the corner anyways. His mouth was twisted up in a derisive parody of a grin.</p>
<p>	“Fantastic. Maybe we should invite Jean onto the roster, so we can collect all the Moriyama’s tossed out freakshows.”</p>
<p>	Matt started to get up but Dan put an arm across the chair.</p>
<p>	Aaron smirked. “What, you think that this just makes everything fine? We should just get over it? He’s the son of a fucking serial killer! For all we know he’s planning to kill us in our sleep. And now he’s decided to hop in bed with the yakuza? What’s next, the Russian mafia? How are we supposed to trust someone who’s done nothing but lie to us and screw us over all year? I’m surprised that Allison hasn’t decided to kick his ass yet anyways. You know this means he knew what he was doing when he baited Riko the first time, right? Seth was an asshole but nobody deserved to die because this piece of shit couldn’t keep his stupid fucking mouth shut.”</p>
<p>	Allison met his gaze levelly, not even blinking as she looked at him. “Are you done?”</p>
<p>	Aaron deflated slightly, clearly not getting the reaction he’d hoped for. “Sure, whatever.”</p>
<p>	She turned to Neil next, who was avoiding her eyes. “He made his choices. And the only person to blame for Seth dying is Riko. Who it sounds like won’t be with us much longer anyways. The only thing I regret is that I didn’t get to take a shot at him myself. So, Aaron, you can fuck off with that petty jealousy shit. By the way, you’re the son of a guy who ditched you before you were even born. How do we know you aren’t going to up and quit on us one day when you get bored? Shut the fuck up. We all have our bullshit, that’s why we’re here. I don’t care who Neil’s related to.”</p>
<p>	“His name is Nathaniel!” Aaron growled.</p>
<p>	“And mine is Natalie.” Even Aaron looked chastened by Renee’s quiet interjection. “So if we’re so caught up on birth names, perhaps you should use mine. Or is this, perhaps, not entirely about that?”</p>
<p>	Allison crossed her legs in her chair. “Yeah, save that shit for therapy.”</p>
<p>	Renee shot her a disapproving look but didn’t say anything else.</p>
<p>	Aaron’s eyes narrowed for a second, but then he gave an eye-roll and slouched back in his seat. “Fine. Neil.”</p>
<p>	Nicky wrinkled his nose and gave an uncomfortable-looking smile. “Someone’s remembered who his ride home is.”</p>
<p>	“Fuck off Nicky.”</p>
<p>	Wymack let out a sigh from his position in the corner. He seemed to have been playing his usual, safe-ish card of letting them sort things out among themselves before he stepped in.</p>
<p>	He took a look around the room, taking in the fairly tense atmosphere. “Okay, impromptu practice, go get your fucking gear on and start running laps. I don’t care, go. God knows this group needs something better to do than sit around talking about this shit all day. Go! I’m not kidding. Last practice before end of semester, go break a fucking sweat for once you little bastards.”</p>
<p>	Neil made to go get changed with the rest of the team, but Wymack put a hand out to stop him, hovering a careful few inches in front of his chest. Matt shot him a quizzical look on his way past, but followed along obediently behind Nicky.</p>
<p>	Wymack crossed his arms, turning to face Neil directly. “Look kid,” he said, rubbing a hand across his forehead, “I know that you have this complex that makes you think you need to take on the world alone, but you could’ve come to us earlier for help with this. I get that it’s complicated, but, Christ Neil, we’ve already been dealing with this shit for a year with Kevin. If there’s any college team out there that’s better equipped for this, I can’t think of them. You need to get it out of that head of yours that you are the only one that can do things to help you. Anyone of those assholes would take a bullet for you, even Aaron the stubborn bastard. Okay? Try trusting them to help you every now and again.”</p>
<p>	Neil opened his mouth to protest, prepared to cite all of the various reasons that would’ve been a terrible idea, but Wymack cut him off.</p>
<p>	“None of that. Go change out. And kid?” He called as Neil began to walk towards the locker rooms, “Just because I know you aren’t going to hear it from him, thanks for doing what you did for Andrew. You didn’t have to and God knows you have plenty of reasons not to, so, thank you.”</p>
<p>	Neil gave him a grim smile on the way out. As he joined the rest of the guys changing out, he considered whether it was time to finally put on his gear in front of everyone else. His hand tightened around his opened locker door as he debated if he could manage it with his history still feeling so raw, so exposed. It was Andrew who was the deciding factor. He’d promised Andrew his scars. He wouldn’t make that promise meaningless. He could start changing out with the rest of them in the spring; Andrew still deserved the first shot. And the full explanations for his injuries he’d probably struggle to tell the Foxes brave enough to ask later.</p>
<p>	He grabbed his gear, making his last walk towards the bathroom stalls, and as he strode over he felt a small smile begin to form on his face. It wasn’t his father’s smile, or even the rare grin of his mother, but something all his own. Something soft, and new. And for the first time in a long time, Neil let himself feel happy.</p>
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